Russian stocks may fall on new fears of escalation in Ukraine

MOSCOW, Feb 17 (PRIME) -- The Russian stock market may open with a decrease on Thursday on renewed geopolitical tensions surge around the Ukrainian crisis, analysts said.

The external background before the start of the main session can be called neutrally negative. Commodity contracts are mainly declining, as well as some Asian markets, so the morning on the domestic market could start with a decline of the MOEX Russia Index and weakening of the ruble, Andrei Kochetkov of Otkritie Research said.

“The risks of a full-scale military conflict between Russia and Ukraine have risen sharply again. Meanwhile, the external background is not conducive to buying. The U.S. futures have been losing about 0.5% in the morning and oil is down 1.5%,” Alexei Antonov of Alor Broker said.

According to Antonov, the Russian stocks have been falling during the morning trading session on news of Ukraine’s attacks on the unrecognized Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. A lot will depend on the reaction of the Russian authorities to the Ukrainian attacks.

Algo Capital’s team headed by Vitaly Manzhos expects the main trading session in Russia to open with a decline of 1.5–2.6% on the MOEX Russia Index, in the range of 3,550–3,590 points, as the overall background is negative today.

As Kochetkov said, the market may pay attention to Gazprom Neft’s and Gazprom’s reports under the International Financial Reporting Standards, RusHydro’s report under the Russian Accounting Standards and Magnit’s investor day, as well as unemployment statistics in the U.S. later in the day.

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